The superior orchestrating skills of Finland’s most famous composer Jean Sibelius are clearest in the seven symphonies for which he is justifiably renowned. They are also equally manifest in his tone poems, two of which receive new treatments here from Finns Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Like his musical predecessor Richard Wagner, Sibelius took great inspiration from Nordic folklore and epic poetry, and there are many echoes of Der Ring des Nibelungen in this program. Tapiola (1926) has been read as a musical description of Tapio, the wood nymph who inhabits the “thick, dark forests” of The Kalevala, Finland’s national mythic saga. However, the composer cautioned against too literal a reading, noting, “My inspiration for Tapiola came wholly from nature, or even more accurately from something inexpressible in words.”

Mysterious and intense, Tapiola evokes dense landscapes, flashes of light, violent storms and features stunning shimmering strings throughout – not for nothing is this regarded as Sibelius’s last great orchestral work. Dating from three-and-a-half decades earlier, En Saga (1892) demonstrates a similar and enduring preoccupation with myth and the Finnish landscape.

More delights await: eight (of the nearly one hundred) songs Sibelius wrote, originally for voice and piano but often featuring expansive orchestrations by Sibelius himself and others. Those included here are lesser-known, and orchestrated and arranged by contemporary Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935). All but two are settings of works by Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877), a major Finnish poet and a favourite of Sibelius’s.

Sallinen’s orchestrations were specifically written and arranged for the magnificent Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, whose performances here are an utter delight. Highlights include Kyssens hopp (The Kiss’s Hope) and Under strandens granar (Under the Fir Trees on the Shore), a chilling story of mother and small son both kidnapped by Nix (the spirit of water and pools) with a dramatic climax that is palpably terrifying and superbly measured.

Von Otter is nuanced, dramatic and controlled, articulating every vocal action with power and precision. Ondine’s Super Audio recording is nothing short of magnificent, fairly leaping out of the speakers with a presence so powerful it could almost be touched, and the erudite liner notes include song lyrics in Finnish with English translations. I am unable to fault this package, which is worth the price of admission for the extraordinary performance of Tapiola alone. Sibelius fans should really seek this one out.

Osmo Vänskä gave us a superb Kullervo in 2001 as part of his lauded cycle with the Lahti Symphony, but this release justifies itself by preserving a programme celebrating Finnish musical identity recorded over several chilly Minnesota nights in February 2016. Premiered in 1892, the sprawling work was a watershed in Sibelius’ creative development – he effectively invented the Finnish musical idiom overnight – its runic tunes and “wind rustling through the pines” textures would be distilled in the later tone poems and symphonies. The work does have its longueurs – Vänskä is daringly expansive in the second movement (Kullervo’s Youth) yet it somehow works, despite its 19-minute duration. Lilli Paasikivi reprises her role as Kullervo’s sister; she pretty much owns the role, though her widening vibrato is worrying. Tommi Hakala is an excellent Kullervo. Vänskä maintains a fine balance of expansive atmosphere and thrilling bite though I miss the intensity of Berglund’s 1985 Helsinki recording with a blistering Jorma Hynninen at his peak. Commissioned as a companion piece for similar forces, Olli Kortekangas’ Migrations is a tribute to the Finnish immigration to North America on texts by Sheila Packa, a Minnesotan of Finnish heritage. A fine piece of atmospherics,…

This album nails its colours firmly to the mast at the very beginning of Tchaikovsky’s concerto. Barenboim and his German band set the scene with an opening phrase of such soft-hued peace that we feel in solid company at the outset of a firmly-charted, epic journey. There will be beautiful sights along the way, but we can be sure that no harm will befall us in such safe hands. Lisa Batiashvili, who learned the Tchaikovsky only in the past few years, is a full and equal partner. Her playing dials down the rhapsody and whimsy, instead sustaining long melodic lines with a determination that patience and calm will reap their rewards. The slow movement, which too often has a ‘big emotion’ stop-start quality, benefits here from a flowing pulse and lines created with an eye on the overall shape. And if the temperature of the finale is lower than on many recordings, I still found myself completely entranced by the epic story these artists were telling. Batiashvili and Barenboim turn a barn-burner into a soulful symphony with obligato violin. Similar characteristics are present in the Sibelius. Here the orchestra sounds magnificent, rich and dark-hued, with a grainy quality that seems…